When you’re writing a series, book 2 is often easier than book 1. In book 1, you’re getting used to the place and its people. The process is full of interesting discoveries, but it’s also time consuming. You’re constantly asking yourself if you want to go there or if you want to go there. People appear and take shape, and sometimes you have to toss them out and try again. It’s sort of like coming to a new town for the first time and finding your way. In fact, it’s exactly like that.

But by book 2, you feel at home. The discovery process is over, and now you can settle in and have fun. That’s what happened with Love in the Morning, book 2 in the Salt Box Trilogy. Book 1, Finding Mr. Right Now, was largely in the point of view of people who were visiting Salt Box for the first time. They were learning about places like the Praeger House hotel and the Blarney Stone bar nearby. And they were getting to know the town’s somewhat quirky residents. In Love in the Morning, you have the point of view of one outsider—Lizzy Apodaca—and one long-time resident—Clark Denham. And since Lizzy is the new head chef at the Praeger House, she becomes an insider a lot more quickly than the characters in Finding Mr. Right Now.

It’s always fun to write from the point of view of someone who knows what’s going on, and in this case it was even more fun because Lizzy’s got a secret—a big one. While she’s learning about the town and its citizens, she’s doing her best to keep them from learning about her, at least for a while.

There’s also a reality show causing problems for everyone, just as there was in Finding Mr. Right Now. And there’s a lot of food—one of my favorite things to write about.

You can preorder Love in the Morning now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and all the usual places. The book will be released on January 5. Here’s the blurb:

Love in the Morning

Breakfast with benefits…

The Salt Box Trilogy, Book 2

The reality show Lovely Ladies of L.A. should have launched Lizzy Apodaca’s catering company into solvency. Instead, when her carefully prepared appetizers mysteriously gave the cast on-camera food poisoning, she lost everything.

To make matters worse, her car breaks down in Salt Box, Colorado, a town not much bigger than a salt shaker. But maybe her luck is changing—the handsome owner of Praeger House, the town’s premier hotel, needs a kitchen assistant.

Clark Denham realizes his diamond in the rough is a polished gem when Lizzy steps up to save the hotel’s breakfast buffet after his temperamental head chef quits. It isn’t long before she’s winning his heart as smoothly and efficiently as she runs his kitchen.

Their relationship goes from simmer to rolling boil with the speed of a short order cook. But when a bevy of not-so-lovely ladies shows up in Salt Box, Lizzy’s past disaster threatens to flatten her happily ever after faster than a falling soufflé.